Professors in Colorado Receive Death Threats for Teaching Evolution

Letters from a Christian extremist last week threatened the lives of evolution biology professors at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The letters claimed to be on behalf of a group, but newspapers and at least one blog have reported that an individual, Michael Korn, a Jew-turned-Christian extremist, is likely behind the threats (an image from his web site is at right). CU police spokesman Brad Wiesley told me they haven’t officially named a suspect but the Colorado Daily wrote that others "close to the case" named Korn.

Last weekend more than a dozen envelopes bearing the image of skull and crossbones and containing letters threatening the lives of
CU-Boulder evolutionary biology professors were slipped under the doors of CU-Boulder buildings….

Several sources say Korn has distributed flyers on campus and has barged into offices of biology professors and administrators in the past year.

But in recent days the threatening e-mails and letters have occurred with increasing frequency and intensity.

On Friday an e-mail sent to CU-Boulder’s evolutionary biology department bore the subject line "a final CU Boulder EBIO appeal” and repeated the line "every true Christian should be ready and willing to take up arms to kill the enemies of Christian society."

That line, as well as “they must go,” have been repeated in a number of communiqués, said a source.

It still seems a bit early to be implicating Korn. Wiesley said police are interviewing people and trying to determine whether criminal charges are appropriate. On Korn’s blog profile, just fyi, he describes his occupation as "fisher of men" and his industry as "publishing." God help us. His favorite movies are "Forrest Gump, The Jesus Film and The Passion of the Christ."